La Blue Girl Vol. #2

What They SayNewly remastered and repackaged with new features! From erotic masterminds Toshio Maeda (Demon Warrior Koji, Demon Beast Invasion) and Rusher Ikeda (Venus 5, Twin Angels)! Enter the Demons! Miko’s previous exploits against both the Shikima and the Suzuka clans haven’t prepared her for the deadly duo of Kamiri – Mistress of the Miroku Sex Craft – and Kagutsumen – the Man of a Thousand Faces! The stakes are high, with the life of Miko’s father – and her own tender flesh – hanging in the balance. But our sassy sex ninja has a few tricks up her… sleeves, and these erotic evildoers are in for the ride of their lives!

The Review!The life of Miko Mido just doesn’t get better. While everyone else is on vacation, she has to continue to hone her abilities…

Audio:For our primary viewing session, we listened to this disc in its original language of Japanese. The La Blue Girl series has sported a decent sound stereo mix since the start, so this is no exception. There’s some minor directionality across the forward soundstage throughout the episodes, but nothing too major. Dialogue is clean and clear throughout without any noticeable distortions or dropouts.

Video:Cleaned up from the original release, plus three years of new mastering experience behind them, this is a solid looking transfer for the most part. Colors are brighter and move vivid, but there’s still some aliasing going on during camera panning sequences, causing curved lines to look like a set of stairs. Cross coloration is non-existent and things in general look solid without any noticeable color banding.

Packaging: Using artwork from the Shin LD’s, the cover provides some good looking artwork of Miko ensnared by chains and tentacles. There’s a bit more text than I care for on top of the already large logo and “from the creator of” piece, but otherwise it looks good. The back cover provides one color shot and then a blue shaded collage of shots below the summary and the production credits. Technical information is fairly clear to see. Being in a clear keepcase, the reverse side provides some more black and white artwork as well as the chapter selection and English language cast, as once again the Japanese cast have requested anonymity.

Menu: This is a fairly decent menu, with a brief headshot of Miko flashing by before the main setup appears, which has Miko standing naked with her hair blowing underneath the selections while blue-shaded pieces of animation play behind her. Selections are quick to access and moving around is nice and fast. My only continual gripe with CPM menus are that they start to play the show on their own if you don’t make a selection quickly enough and selecting languages forces you right into the show.

Extras: There’s a couple of nice extras included on this disc. The first is the second part of the BAAF interview with Maeda and Ikeda where they spend almost four minutes talking about aspects of their creation and make comparisons to Miyazaki. It’s an interesting bit, but more at once is definitely needed. Another art gallery is included as well as another look at the comics.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)After the introduction and revelations for Miko in the first volume, she’s ready for some downtime and some time to just be herself. Everyone in school is on vacation, but she still finds herself having to take the time for self-training in holding back her climaxes. Life sucks for poor Miko.

Looking for guidance, she prays to her family spirits which end up guiding her to take a trip to the Miroku village where people of her clan live. So it’s time for a road trip and she and Nin-nin are on their way. It doesn’t take all that long until they come across someone from the village, an attractive young woman named Yaku who can sniff out that Miko isn’t what she seems. She directs them to the village with an indication to meet up with her later. And when they do meet up, they certainly get along well.

Yaku’s something of an interesting character, one of those who changes during certain times of the month from her buxom attractive self into a larger demon that just needs sex and needs it fast. This transformation comes as a surprise to Miko, but she’s always game to help and this provides a rather fun segment. But this is just a lead-in to the villains of these episodes, Kamiri and Kugutsumen, to try and coerce either of the girls into getting them into the Shikima realm where they can do some real damage.

Plot aside, these are fun episodes that have some good fun twists of the human/demon combinations and those who play both sides of the fence. It’s not the most original thing in the world, but it’s nice to see hentai with demons that take place during the day and has demons that aren’t exactly the ultimate evil. La Blue Girl continues to be a favorite both for its style, villains and the great looking sex.